A Week in the Life: Here’s What Happened Last Week

A Week in the Life

Tuesday, April 7

North Carolina’s CORONAVIRUS DEATH TOLL jumped by 13 from 11:00 a.m. Monday to 11:00 Tuesday, the largest one-day rise to date. Blacks and African Americans, who comprise 22 percent of the state’s population, accounted for 38 percent of cases and 31 percent of fatalities.

ProPublica reported that in 2018, SENATOR RICHARD BURR sold shares in an obscure Dutch fertilizer company shortly before its stock fell in part because of changes in Trump administration policy. Burr has been roundly criticized for unloading up to $1.7 million in stock just before the coronavirus market crash.

Citing the looming recession, the RALEIGH CITY COUNCIL abandoned its “moonshot”—an ambitious bond proposal for Dix Park and other parks and greenways.

A legislative economist predicted that state revenue would decline by $1.5 BILLION TO $2.5 BILLION over the next two fiscal years.

Wednesday, April 8

The state NAACP sued to force Governor Cooper and the state Department of Public Safety to release AT-RISK INMATES from state prisons.

Cooper put new restrictions on LONG-TERM CARE FACILITIES after 60 residents of an Orange County nursing home came down with COVID-19 and two of them died.

An ANONYMOUS DONOR gave Wake County $100,000 to put toward its coronavirus efforts.

Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson signed off on a consent order releasing nine state prisoners, part of DURHAM COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY SATANA DEBERRY and other local officials’ efforts to reduce the prison population.

Thursday, April 9

More than 137,000 people filed for UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS in North Carolina, bringing the state’s total to more than 400,000 in just three weeks.

The Durham County Board of Commissioners voted to move 250 people from HOMELESS SHELTERS into the Marriott hotel in Research Triangle Park.

VERNETTA ALSTONresigned from the Durham City Council to move to the General Assembly, where she’ll take the seat left vacant by state representative MaryAnn Black, who died last month.

LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR DAN FOREST said on a Wilmington talk show that the state’s news media is overhyping the coronavirus to sell advertising, an astoundingly ignorant statement given the fact that, with businesses closed, there’s no one to sell advertising to.

An outbreak of the coronavirus was reported at a LONG-TERM CARE FACILITY in Knightdale, the first such outbreak in Wake County.

Friday, April 10

A third death was reported at the PRUITTHEALTH nursing care facility in Orange County. By Monday, there would be reported outbreaks at nursing homes all over the Triangle.

Sunday, April 12

CHARLES RICHARD ROOTES became the first inmate at the Butner Federal Correctional Institution to die from COVID-19 complications. More than 80 people at the facility, including 22 staff members, have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Monday, April 13

New rules took effect restricting the number of shoppers allowed inside RETAIL STORES and requiring nursing homes to take further measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

The DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY announced that it would begin releasing some prisoners early, including pregnant women, offenders over 65 with underlying health conditions or a release date in 2020, and female inmates over 50 with underlying conditions and a release date in 2020.

Cooper said that lifting the STAY-AT-HOME ORDERS “wholesale” would be a catastrophe.

Contact editor in chief Jeffrey C. Billman at jbillman@indyweek.com.

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